[Photo scan above is from October 8, 1956 issue of Life, "U.S. Masons: A Pictorial History
In Color", were the caption below the picture reads: "THE PASCHAL LAMB is celebrated by
Brooklyn's Aurora Grata Rose Croix, whose members are 18th° Scottish Rite Masons.
Ritual is each year on Maundy Thursday. The 13 Masons wearing dark robes and seated at
cross-shaped table represent participants at the Last Supper. The ceremony, combining Jew-
ish Passover and Christian observance, lasts 1 1/2 hours, includes music, prayer, recita-
tion. It ends with candles being put out one by one."]
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The ritual pictured above uses symbols sacred to Christians
and mimicks the Last Supper, commemorating the death of a
'Most Wise and Perfect Master', which, given the
cross-shaped table, clearly refers to Jesus Christ, who is
stripped of His divinity, however, as described by former
33rd Degree Scottish Rite Freemason, Rev. Jim Shaw, in his
book entitled, The Deadly Deception, wherein the ceremony
pictured above is described in less misleading terms than
the description given in Life magazine above, which fails to
mention that the somber ritual is in fact a Masonic black
mass which symbolically extinquishes the light of the world,
Jesus the Christ, and snuffs out the 7 candles to ritually
blot out the name that Christians believe to be above all
names, as a former Freemason, Shaw, describes in his book:
"On Thursday evening we gathered at out home Temple and
dressed for the ceremony. It was always a most solemn
occasion and seemed a little awesome, even to those who had
done it many times.
Dressed in long, black, hooded robes we marched in, single
file, with only our faces partly showing and took our seats.
There was something very tomb-like about the
setting....After the opening prayer (from which the name of
Jesus Christ was conspicuously excluded), I stood and opened
the service. As I had done so many times before, I said, 'We
meet this day, to commemorate the death of our 'Most Wise
and Perfect Master,' not as inspired or divine, for this is
not for us to decide, but as at least the greatest of the
apostles of Mankind...."
Jim Shaw then goes on to describe the ceremony as a sort of
Black Mass or communion, a mockery of the Last Supper of
Jesus Christ. The ritual closes with the snuffing out
of the candles, the last one signifying the life of Jesus,
and it ends with the room in deep, silent, and somber palor,
which is an ironic twist for a secret society that purports
to give light and life to its members. Do the seven candles
represent the 7 churches of Christianity mentioned in the
book of Revelation? Are they snuffed out to symbolize the
destruction of Christendom. That, after all, is the goal of
Freemasonry, according to many researchers, such as Ralph
Epperson, David Carrico, Texe Marrs, etc., not to mention no
less than seven Popes, including the venerable Pope Leo XIII
whose encyclical, "Humanum Genus", remains a classic.
In any case, it seems misleading at best that Life magazine
describes the ceremony as a combination of Christian observ-
ance and Jewish Passover, unless by chance "passover" means
we should pass over any mention of Jesus Christ by name, and
snuff out a candle that represents the light of the world.
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